Laundry Apocalypse

The other day I was overwhelmed by a laundry apocalypse. There is nothing more illustrative of the way Motherhood has changed me than my kid’s clothes. I used to LOVE clothes. I sold clothes for nine years. I studied merchandising in school. I saved dresses from 2001 with the intention of handing them down to my children. All of this has changed because I now look at clothes for what they really are… LAUNDRY.

These days, I’m more interested in babywearing than what my baby is wearing. I certainly appreciate a cute outfit as much as the next Mommy, I’m just trying to keep things as simple as possible when it comes to dressing the girls. For a good portion of the summer, Hannah wore three different dresses in rotation because they were the easiest for diaper changes. Recently, I shared my handy system for organizing her fall clothes in Toddler Trends. I strongly believe that baby clothes should be purchased and stored as outfits.

One good thing that I’m enjoying is Hannah’s enthusiasm for “helping” me do laundry. Even though it doesn’t make my job any easier, it reminds me that she is curious and intent on learning. Now she can distinguish if clothes are coming in or out of the dryer and assist in the transfer. I can’t wait until she gets a little older so that I can teach her how to fold. There are so many ways to make laundry a learning activity. We can talk about colors while she practices following instructions.

Even though doing laundry isn’t the highlight of my day, having a little one tag along certainly is nice. When she shows signs of boredom with her toys towards the middle of the afternoon I simply say, “Hannah, do you want to help with the laundry?” and she’ll perk right up. She races me over to the machine and eagerly inspects the process. I have a feeling this little one will be putting stickers on my chore chart in a few years instead of hers.